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August 6, 2014

Trainer Ride in a Trainer Lesson

My requests to my trainer before I left for California were "keep him in work" and "fly spray". (And jokingly, to the barn staff "Keep my horse alive.") Little did I know she planned on riding him in one of her lessons with an outside eventing trainer who comes over once a week. Exciting! And to top that off, there's video, which I won't post to protect the innocent. It's a shame, because she gets a level of work out of him, especially at the canter, that I just can't do myself. I did steal some screengrabs for you guys, though.

They worked quite a bit on two things: self-carriage, and keeping his feet moving and his brain processing quickly. The self-carriage bit she worked on over the course of the entire week, before finally putting it together in the last couple of rides. With me in the saddle, we've been getting glimpses of it, but I haven't been able to get "there" yet.

JenJ would like everyone to know she is appalled, APPALLED, by the saddle pad color choice against Connor's chestnut coat. I am nonplussed. See, I saved you a comment.

Engage the hindquarter, elevate the poll, keep his shoulders up in front of you. All things we are working on now that I struggle with and she does easily.

THIS. I cannot make this happen. But I know it's in there, and she can make it happen. This is even his bad direction.